Damien Jurado comes from Seattle, Washington, with a repertoire of mostly sad songs of sad people in sad places you never want to be stuck in. With a soft folk voice reminiscent of Sam Beam of Iron and Wine and a knack for story-telling like Bob Dylan, the characters of his songs come to life in front of your eyes in a way that makes you feel their pain and see the light at the end of the tunnel that they see.

Not all his songs are depressing. Amidst these sad songs, Jurado has a few simple folk songs that remind you that it’s good to be alive.

Jurado began his solo career in the 1990s, but he was making music in bands before that. He played with the hardcore band Coolidge, alongside David Bazan of Pedro the Lion and Eben Haase of Blenderhead.

Besides Coolidge, Jurado played keyboard on one song with the infamous band Raft of Dead Monkeys. Do yourself a favor and read the Wikipedia page about them here. You’ll never be the same again. The band, made mostly of openly Christian members, mocked and satirized the rock and roll culture, using nudity, vulgar lyrics, and gore to provoke a reaction in audience members. Pretty weird stuff.

He has released eight solo albums in his time, but the folksy acoustic stuff is the best in my opinion.

Though Damien Jurado has been called a “fine Christian chap” and has a number of Christian friends, he makes no claims to being a “Christian musician.” That said, I enjoy his songs and I think you will too.

Before you leave, here are two for you to listen to. “Matinee” is one of his rare happier songs and “I Had no Intentions” follows his usual routine of telling a sad story with glimmers of hope:

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3 comments

before you post something like this you may want to do some research and get your facts straight. first of all, i have never and nor do i now consider myself to be a christian musician. because you have friends who play in christian bands and are on christian record labels doesn’t make you a christian musician.. just like having friends who are fire fighters doesn’t make you a fire fighter. true i was in the band coolidge but we were never signed to tooth and nail. we contributed a song to a compilation and that was about it. i put out a 7″ record with tooth and nail and they also licenced my first record with an agreement made between them and sub pop. this had nothing to do with me. i also was never a member of the band raft of dead monkeys. i played keyboard for them on one song at a show they did. ..and from what i remember raft never played churches. i have always been a fan of music greats and legendary “christian” musicians like larry norman and keith green. but i could never for the life of me figure out why they chose to stay inside the church preaching to the choir instead of outside to the people in the church parking lot. christian musicians are in it to help win souls. (i guess)
..i am not. my beliefs in god and other issues of politics have nothing to do with who i am as a musician. christian musicians and other musicians who use thier music as a platform is alienating and dividing thier audience.

Sorry about the inaccuracies, and thanks for setting the record straight! I guess you can’t trust everything you find on the internet after all. Big surprise, right?

Anyway, I’ve adjusted the post so no one gets the wrong impression or false information. Hope it looks good to you! 🙂

On a side note, for anyone else who’s interested, Keith Green actually didn’t want to play to church crowds. He always tried to get onto a secular label and would often play in bars and coffeehouses, but God kept telling him to go back to the churches and so he kept obeying. Larry Norman too, even to this day, plays his music on street corners for people who would never enter a church. Unfortunately, few people seem to copy that approach anymore.

Keep making great music! You’re one of my favorite musicians out there.